Spring Mountain Ranch - Trip Notes for 09/10/2015

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(Fig. 01)

09/10/2015 Trip Notes: This was the first outing of the fall season for the Rock-hounds from the Henderson Senor Center. Because most up us hadn’t done any hiking all summer, we were all glad that this was a relatively easy hike. In spite of this, combined with the heat, we were all tired by the end of the day. Mary and I did it all. We started with the “Overlook Hike”, spent quite a time slowly walking around Lake Harriet. Along with the fabulous views (Fig. 01) with the patch of cat-o'-nine-tails, or cattails (Fig. 02); there were also a few ducks (Fig. 03). We then hiked the old jeep road out to Sandstone Canyon (Fig. 04). On our return we stopped by a couple of the out buildings, a couple of board and batten bunkhouses (Fig. 05) and the ranches' original  blacksmith shop (Fig. 06). After taking a tour of the main ranch house, we walked the 0.75-mile loop trail that runs east from behind the Ranch House, down a wooded gully,passing under a number of Fremont's cottonwood, shrub live oak, pinyon pine, Utah juniper, and velvet ash trees along the way along to a deep wash/creek (Fig. 07). As we hiked the wash we spotted two donkeys in the wash and walking along the opposite side (Figs. 08 & 10). Hiking down the wash afforded us some different view of the Wilson Ridge (Fig.11 & 12).

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(Fig. 05) (Fig. 06)

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(Fig. 08) (Fig. 09)

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